Saturday, April 20, 2013

Catch and Keep Opener 2013

[in captions]

Day one: we were afforded exactly 90 minutes of free time between appointments on Saturday (opening day). We were in the vicinity, so we stopped in on a popular river reach. Kid wanted to press for a creel of ten; we had to stop at seven to meet our next obligation.

Every kept trout showed a stomach near-bursting with a notable mix of bugs.

My field eye was a bit rusty and I underestimated the length of every trout we kept. The offset was approximately 1.5 inches. I think this fish was 13 or maybe 14.5 inches. Biggest BNT I've ever kept.

This cat already has the one handed pose; it came naturally to him.

Still can't hook fish on his own; main lesson on this day was pinching the line with one hand, stripping it in with the other. The casual stance in this photo; I like it.

The receding water is often great to fish, in my opinion. It's clear or clearing, and the extra volume provides more camouflage for both audio/visual facets. We beat up this riffle in every way. We worked the tail: first three drifts produced fish. Then the far side; beauties there. Then the main riffle and the head. More fish. Look at it. Tandem nymph rigs. Big black leading and a scud trailing. Knocked all over the water.

First creel of 2013. Smallest fish is 11 inches. Feels good to keep fish. To eat them.

Day two was a steady rain all day; should have fished it but couldn't. Day three was a bust as a result of day two: we looked at all the small streams within 35 minute radius; every one was less than three inches clarity. We didn't fish; called it and went home. Did something else. So we've logged 90 minutes thus far in keep season. April continues to drain away... Man, could use a good week without hard precip and then a solid day of nymphing. I think it might be coming soon.